


then she smiled at me (and i lost it)

by LiveLaughLovex



Series: we'll make it right for you [6]
Category: The Code (TV 2019)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Post-Canon, proposal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-29
Updated: 2020-06-29
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:01:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24977296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiveLaughLovex/pseuds/LiveLaughLovex
Summary: Harper's mother is insane, obviously, but sometimes her crazy comments can lead to good things.
Relationships: John "Abe" Abraham/Harper Li
Series: we'll make it right for you [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1803601
Comments: 3
Kudos: 3





	then she smiled at me (and i lost it)

**Author's Note:**

> The title comes from Kenny Chesney's "I Lost It."

“My mother has _lost her mind_.”

“Has she?” Abe questioned mildly, looking up from the basket of clothes he was halfway through folding to offer his girlfriend an amused grin. “What’s she done now?”

“She asked when the wedding is,” Harper supplied, settling onto the sofa next to him. “And then was so shocked when I said we weren’t engaged. She thought… well, I don’t know what she thought. I never do. I have no earthly idea what she’s thinking. As I said, she’s lost her mind.”

“Thinking we’d get married is evidence she’s lost her mind?” Abe asked, trying not to let that sting.

“No, of course not. But assuming you’d have proposed just because I got pregnant… this isn’t a shameful thing, John. We’re having a _baby_ , not…” She trailed off before reiterating, once more, “It doesn’t matter. It’s – my mother has lost her mind.”

She stood to leave the room, likely to be alone with her thoughts, but he spoke before she could make it to the kitchen.

“I have my mother’s ring.”

Harper turned around to look at him, eyes wide and damp with tears. “I know you do.”

“Yeah, I figured.” He hesitated, leaning forward to rest his elbows against his knees. “I’ve been wanting to use it for a while now.”

“Abe, if this is about the baby, about you wanting to do the right thing…”

“I picked it up on February seventeenth,” he cut in gently, staring up at her as she moved closer. “Of last year.”

“We had our first date on the fifteenth,” she reminded him, sounding mildly confused.

“Because you didn’t want the cliché of it being on Valentine’s Day. Yes, I remember.”

“You – you went to get the ring two days later?”

“Well, she had to get it out of the safe. I called her the morning of the sixteenth.” He reached a hand out for her to take, and she did so, settling onto the sofa next to him with so much confusion and wonder in her eyes that he couldn’t help but offer a sappy smile in return. “Harper, I’ve always known where I was rooting for this to go.”

“And were you rooting for the baby?” she asked playfully.

“Sometimes, it’s the things you don’t expect that make you the happiest,” he answered seriously. “I didn’t expect you. I didn’t expect to fall in love with you.”

She sniffled through a smile. “I’ve always figured calling girls Boot wasn’t a strange flirting technique of yours.”

“It wasn’t. But you aren’t just another girl, Harper. You never have been. Even back then.” He scoffed as the confusion on her face grew more obvious at the confession. “I made it through the Naval Academy. I did two tours of Afghanistan. Do you really think I let new lawyers get under my skin like that?”

“Well, I always just thought…”

“You were always special,” he reiterated clearly. “Even when you were just the girl who always had a comeback in the meetings, or who always gave me a hard time about being late…”

“It’s statistically improbable for the same tire to go flat twice in one week, Abe, that’s just a fact.”

“You were _special_ ,” he said once more. “And then we became less adversaries and more friends, and you were just – you amazed me. The way you handled yourself, how you held it all together. After the thing in Idlib – I remember what I was like, first time something like that happened to me. I shut down, and I – if it’d been me out there that day, and I’d been as green as you, those Marines probably would not have made it home to their families.”

“Yes, they would…”

“Harper,” he cut in, shaking his head with eyes glistening despite the smile on his face. “You have _always_ been extraordinary, and I have been in love with you for so much longer than our son has existed. I have loved you since the moment I realized I could. This isn’t about the baby. This is about me wanting, more than anything, to spend the rest of my life with you.”

“I…” Harper drew in a deep breath, smiling through her own tears. “You do realize that, if we get engaged right now, my mother will never stop bragging about it? She’ll think she put the idea in my head or something.”

“That is a sacrifice I’m willing to make.”

“Or, or, we could wait a couple weeks before we tell them.”

“But what about your dad? Won’t he be upset if I don’t ask him…”

“Honey, let me cut you off right there. If you think you need my father’s permission to ask me to marry you, then you can go ahead and put that ring back in your sock drawer.” She laughed at the look on his face. “I’m kidding. Mostly.”

“How do you know where the ring was?”

“Because I have _put away your socks_ before.”

“Right.” He carefully slipped from his seat, disappearing upstairs without any warning. He ignored her yelled inquiries as to what he was doing, fumbling around in their bedroom for several seconds before returning.

“Where’d you move it to?” she asked curiously, staring at the tiny velvet box he held cupped in one hand.

“Hid it in the safe.”

“Good place for it.” Her eyes moved to his face, and she smiled at him almost tentatively. “Are you going to…”

“Harper Li,” he said teasingly, shaking his head with false reproach. “Are you trying to _direct_ your own proposal?”

“Look, I think we can both agree that would be very much in character for me.”

“It would,” he said, smiling at her with that same warm look of fondness and affection always present in his gaze when she was around.

And then, without warning, he fell to one knee.

“Okay, so we’re doing this now.”

“I’m doing this now,” he corrected with a smirk. “May I have my moment, Li?”

“You may. Carry on.”

“Thank you for your permission.” He cleared his throat, still grinning at her. “Harper Elinor Li, I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want it more than I’ve ever wanted anything. I love you more than I ever thought I could love anyone. So, will you…”

“Yes,” she said before he could finish.

“I did not…”

“I know you didn’t ask the question, but the answer is yes.”

He chuckled to himself, pressing a kiss to her knuckles. “Okay. Do you want the ring, or…?”

“I think I will take that, yes,” she said teasingly, sniffling as he removed the ring from its box and lifted her left hand, carefully slipping it onto her third finger. “Oh, it’s beautiful.”

“You’re beautiful,” he retorted, pushing himself up and pulling her into his arms. “Hey. I love you.”

“I love you, too,” she breathed, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling his lips down to hers.

“I know. You just agreed to marry me.”

“I could be in it for the ring,” she joked laughingly.

“No, you couldn’t.”

“No,” she agreed, pressing her lips to his once more and smiling into the kiss. “I really couldn’t.”

And it was in that moment, standing there in the living room of the house they’d turned into a home – into _their_ home, their _family’s_ home – that the next chapter of their lives began.

**Author's Note:**

> This one was also sort of short. Sorry! But I really wanted a story to just focus on the proposal, and it's hard to make one scene much longer than this! I hope you enjoyed anyway!


End file.
